Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Ok, lousy blurry picture. I just wanted to pick my fork back up and chow down.Every now and then you go to the kitchen and do something that justs blows you away. In this case it was a collaborative effort. Peter and I wanted to do something fun with the considerable quantity of leftover dirty rice. Rice cakes was the solution. However, sometimes things like that are apt to fall apart in a saute pan when you try to turn them over. So … we got creative.

Decided to bake the cakes. Put a piece of foil on a small cutting board, sprayed it with Pam so we could just slide them onto a baking sheet.

Set the oven to 350 and put the baking pan in to heat up while the oven did same.

Baked the cakes for 25 minutes without turning them. Wonder of wonders, they were marvelous.

The side dish of sautéed baby bok choy is something I wrote about a few days ago. The most basic recipe imaginable: 1 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp Chinese rice wine (Shiaxing). Toss the bok choy in the butter and oil for about 2 minutes. Add the wine. Keep tossing for another minute or two. Done!

Monday, November 29, 2010

I don’t think I’ve ever failed to have turkey soup after Thanksgiving. It’s always different because of available ingredients. This time around there were roasted mushrooms to add to it. Other than that it was typical stuff: carrot, onion, celery, turkey (duh!), and noodles. I like the yolk-less ones. They are light and lovely. One thing about the noodles: so that they don’t absorb too much of the broth and become mushy, I cook them to order; just what I need for two servings at a time.

What you see above was a delightful Sunday lunch. Peter made a turkey waldorf salad and we plated it up side by side with some green papaya sauerkraut and sliced apple.

In years past I have often discarded the turkey liver. Only because I had no particular use for it. This year was different. When I made giblet gravy with the heart and gizzard, I browned the liver along with them and then set it aside. My motivation? Dirty rice.

The essential ingredient for dirty rice is turkey or chicken liver. I added a bit of green pepper just to use it up. A bit of onion is nice but not required. Scallions would be good. The rice doesn’t look particularly “dirty”. It could have used 2 or 3 times as much liver. But no matter, I used what I had and the flavor was quite nice.

The protein is leftovers of the coffee-encrusted steak from a few days ago – still succulent.

Heat the oil. Add onion and bell pepper and sauté over medium for 5 minutes. Stir in rice and sauté 2 minutes. Add stock and bring to a boil. Reduce to a low simmer, cover, and cook 20-25 minutes until all liquid is absorbed.

In the meantime, chop the liver into small pieces. When the rice is done, stir in the liver, season with salt and pepper, taste and adjust seasoning. Let it sit off heat for a few minutes, then serve.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

What could be more NOT Thanksgiving than this. In fact I made the kraut last Thursday or Friday and it’s been “curing” ever since. I think it’s ready to eat.

I bought a green papaya when I visited my favorite Vietnamese market last week. I was going to make a traditional Thai salad with it, but the weather has been so chilly I wasn’t in the mood for it. Then I got an idea. A Google search confirmed what I suspected: you can make sauerkraut from green papaya.

With the aid of one of my favorite books, “Wild Fermentation” by Sandor Ellix Katz, I started the sauerkraut using his simple method. I julienned the papaya with my mandoline, then layered it in a crock, sprinkling salt as I went along. To weigh it down I used a 1 gallon freezer bag filled with water. It’s been curing now for 4-5 days and is almost ready to eat. I’m thinking we’ll use it on turkey sandwiches later in the week.

There is no difference between making sauerkraut with regular green cabbage or napa except the vegetable itself. Green papaya is nice and crunchy and the crunch is retained during the curing (which is done at room temperature). This is better than any commercial sauerkraut I’ve ever had. It is infused with that wonderful quality, umami.

I’m remembering I did one thing special: I added about a half teaspoon of ground caraway seed after a couple of days.

Now, you might ask me “how much salt did you use?” Only a medium pinch on each layer. Can’t be more precise than that.

Monday, November 22, 2010

I just want to explain (I've done it before) that I feel a little guilty not reading posts about desserts (of which there have been many recently). I don't bake and I don't eat dessert. Just know that I'm still out here for all of you.

Sunday was a weird recipe day. I had some top round I thought I would turn into steak tartare. But after grinding the meat I wasn’t thrilled with its taste and texture. So I combined all the ingredients that would have accompanied the raw meat and turned it into a mini-meatloaf.

What you see is a little 3” x 4” loaf pan. I didn’t photo it after baking, I was too hungry. It was very good, if a little unusual.

The recipe called for a couple of anchovies, which I would happily have used – but I didn’t have any. To add that saltiness and umami I tossed in a couple of chopped tablespoons of Asian preserved mustard tuber.

I don’t expect any of you are going to make this, but it is kind of interesting. So, just for the record:

Cooking of tilapiaIs never at all sloppia.With potato and some soyA bounty of much joy.

Eating dinner on my own again last night lead me to an impulse menu plan. I couldn’t think what I wanted, or rather there were too many things I wanted. So I went to Safeway and spotted tilapia filets at the fish counter. Bingo. I determined to do the flour, egg and breadcrumb thing and shallow fry them. When I say shallow fry I just mean that there’s only about ¼” of oil in the pan and it doesn’t cover the top of the fish when you’re doing one side at a time.

No recipe necessary here. I got the oil screaming hot and fried the fish for 2 minutes on side one and 1 minute on side two. It was scrumptious.

My sides were the remains of a bag of edamame out of the freezer, simmered in a little water, drained, and dressed with butter, garlic powder, onion powder and pepper. No salt.

The baked potato I prepared in our convection toaster oven. 400 degrees for 1 hour. It was a white potato, not a russet and the final texture was soft and creamy as opposed to flaky. It received some butter, salt and pepper.

Friday, November 19, 2010

A dangerous theme has developed here. I used to write haiku a lot. I used to write limericks a lot. I love doggerel (and dogs). I just had to look over my shoulder to see where Scooper (the King Charles Spaniel) was. He’s sacked out on a papasan chair next to me. He’s adjusting to the time change. It’s so dark by the time we finish dinner and do the dishes that his interest in an evening walk has waned. I take him out anyway – he just needs it at the age of 12+. But enough about him. Back to me.

I love those slices of ham you can find in every supermarket. You know, the oval ones with the little round bone in the middle. That’s the inspiration today.

Sometimes I just dream stuff up. It usually doesn’t result in a nightmare. In this case something unusual happened: the resulting repast tasted exactly the way I had imagined it.The onset of fall weather has me in a comfort food mode. Time for poetry.

Ham slice in baked riceAs leaves drop and wind is chilledEat well - take comfort

Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan. Add onion, green pepper, garlic and onion powders, pinch salt and pinch black pepper. Saute just until the onion and pepper begin to soften, 3-4 minutes.

Add the rice and stir to coat with the contents of the pan. Lay the ham slice on top. Add the stock. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a slow simmer. Cover and took 20-25 minutes until all the liquid has been absorbed. Serve with an additional vegetable.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Ok, this one’s a bit complicated. So I don’t expect you to want to make it. At its heart it’s just a stir-fry – with some exotic ingredients. The picture above is the final product, still in the wok, ready to serve. The white cubes are konnyaku (more about that later). The yellow strips are bamboo pith (also, more later).

The best thing I can tell you is that I barbecued (braised) my short ribs for an hour and a half with plenty of onion, soy, Chinese cooking wine, sesame oil, red pepper flakes, and other stuff I don’t even remember now.

This isn’t true kalbi (Korean short ribs), which is made by marinating the beef for a long time and grilling it for 2 minutes per side. Perhaps you’ve had it in a Korean restaurant sometime.

The noodles came from the refrigerator section of my Chinese supermarket. The package said they were suitable for lo-mein, although the noodles we typically associate with lo-mein are better.

Look closely at the picture of the (still frozen) slices of short ribs. Instead of being cut with long bones, they are cut across about ¼” thick. In the lower part of the picture you can make out the little ovals of bone along the top and middle of the meat.

Konnyaku is made from yams. It resembles tofu, but only in the way it looks. It has no taste, but absorbs flavors from everything around it, similar to what tofu does. I don’t know how to describe the texture. When you bite into it it gives some resistance, but then is soft. It’s a fun thing, though I think I won’t buy it again.The bamboo pith: yep, it’s from bamboo, comes dried, and needs re-hydration, which is what you see it undergoing in hot water above. It’s slightly chewy and brings (like the konnyaku) only texture to the party.

On the plate you see (from the top, clockwise) scallions, garlic, grated carrot and the pith. Up in the left hand corner is the konnyaku soaking in water. It comes that way, just like tofu.

This was fun and delicious. The mise en place took a bit of time, but what else was I going to do after combing through drawers throughout the house, cleaning out crap in anticipation of our move.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Ok, I’m naming this weirdly. But you know me, I am weird – but good. Over the course of several days I conjured up what I expected to be a comfort food dish with attitude. It worked. The inspiration came from my mom’s 50’s-style pot roast, using canned soup concentrate. It may be trailer park trash food but it’s good.

Why 5 chicken legs? Simple; that’s what was in the discounted package I got a Safeway. 6 legs would also be fine without any adjustments.

Given the recipe’s title, a poem is called for:

Take some chicken legsDo it in chilly weatherBring warmth to your house

Slice each drumstick through the thick parts of the meat 2 times on each side. Brine the chicken (very important, unless it’s not). In 2 cups of water dissolve 2 tbsp kosher salt (or 1 ½ tbsp table salt), 1 tbsp black pepper and 1 tsp red pepper flakes. Put the drumsticks into a 1 gallon freezer bag. Add the brining liquid. Squeeze out as much air as possible. Put the bag into some container (just in case of leakage) and refrigerate for 2-5 hours. Remove the chicken from the bag, rinse well and dry thoroughly with paper towels.

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.

In a pot suitable for the oven, heat the oil over medium. Add the vegetables, mixing them around in some sort of uniform fashion. Sprinkle with celery salt and pepper.

Lay the drumsticks on the vegetables. Pour the soup concentrate over the drumsticks. Add the chicken stock to the pan. Cover with a lid or foil and bake for 1 ½ hours, until the chicken is cooked to 170 degrees.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

I wrote and re-wrote this recipe until I started to make it. And then I re-wrote it as I went along. The idea was to turn French onion soup upside down, and that’s what happened. Consider the source: lots of caramelized onions in a beef broth topped with crusty bread and cheese (Swiss or gruyere). My soup has all the ingredients but … well … deconstructed.

It was everything I hoped for. Fairly thick, very creamy, tasting of onion, and garnished with divine little shallot rings which were dredged in flour and deep-fried until crispy. The caramelized onion gives the body of the soup great flavor.

Now you might be wondering about those odd looking things on the side. They are fish roe sacks acquired at a large Vietnamese market I finally got back to the other day. Once a year Peter and I like to indulge in shad roe. Fried in bacon fat it is seriously unhealthy. This roe (unidentified, as no one in the market seems to speak English) tasted a good deal like shad, with a different texture. It was fun to do and something I’d thought about trying for a long time. With Peter out of town I could get away with just about anything. I don’t think I’ll do a roe recipe, it was just bacon fat, salt and pepper.

A word about the bench scraper. It annoys the heck out of me watching how much time TV cooks spend using their bare hands to get chopped ingredients into their pan. Only a few will pick up a bench scraper as an assist. Believe me (or don’t), can’t you see how I was able to pick up my onion in one swell foop. I made a single portion of this recipe, but below is for 4 servings.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat (5 on my 1-10 electric dial). Add the onion and garlic. Cook until well caramelized, about 8-10 minutes. Transfer to a food processor. Add bread and enough stock to puree everything. (Adding all the stock would be too much for the processor.)

Once pureed, put everything back into the skillet and bring to a simmer.In the meantime, heat 2” of oil in a suitable pan for frying. Dredge the shallot rings in the flour and shake off the excess in a strainer. When the oil is hot (a drop of water flicked in will pop instantly) drop in some of the shallots (it’s best to do this in 2-3 batches). Fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towel and sprinkle with fine salt.

Once the soup part is simmering, whisk in the ricotta. Use an amount that gives you a texture you like. I made mine pretty thick. Toss in the gruyere and when it’s mostly melted (just a minute or two) serve in heated bowls and garnish with shallot and some parsley if you wish.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

I don’t know where this inspiration came from. But I’d been thinking about the wok smoker. When I refer to “hot” smoking, I now know why. The temperature in the wok smoker got to 350 degrees. That explains why everything smoked in it cooks in the same time as if you did it in the oven or on the stove. No matter, it’s the results that count.

Now I realize that not everyone is going to go to this much trouble. But, like with my homemade tater tots some months ago, I saw it as a challenge. The result is so good that I’m glad I invested the time and effort.

Put the jalapenos in a small bowl and drizzle with a little olive oil. Toss to coat. Roast in a 400 degree oven for two hours. Smoke in the wok smoker for 1 hour.

Put the remaining ingredients into a small sauce pan and bring to a simmer. Cook for 20 minutes. Use an immersion blender to puree it. Add in the roasted and smoked jalapenos and simmer for another 10 minutes. (At this point you may want to add a little more stock if it gets too thick and dry.) Allow to cool. Place in a glass container and refrigerate.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Peter and I are working on getting our house sold with the goal of moving back to DC, where we lived for many years before coming to Colorado. We're focussed on emptying the freezer, pantry and fridge of quite a bit of stuff. Hence, no interesting things to post for the last week.

I'm going to be on my own this weekend and have plans for at least a couple of unique creations. Please be patient and have a look at what I come up with in a couple of days.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

I switched horses with regard to what I was planning to do with my homemade ricotta. Instead of a type of soup, I decided to make gnocchi following the directions of Mark Bittman from a recent issue of the NY Times’ dining section. The recipe below is as printed, but I had to do some math to adjust for the fact that I had less ricotta than called for. Thank heavens I have a calculator.

These turned out to be little ping-pong sized fluffs of delicate tastiness. Bear in mind that a 1/3 recipe made enough for a sufficient dinner for 2.

Combine ricotta, eggs, parmesan, salt and flour in a bowl. If it seems to wet, add a bit more flour. If it seems too dry, add just a bit of warm water. The dough should be sticky.

Bring a pot of water to boil. Add a generous amount of salt (the same as if you were cooking pasta). Drop about a tablespoon of the dough at a time into the boiling water. They are done when they float.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Pure guesswork turned a pound of ground turkey into wonderful little lumps of joy. Here’s an odd thing: having made homemade ricotta the other day, I saved the whey that separated from the cheese curds. I used some of it to moisten the bread crumbs.

The great thing about using the muffin tin is that the turkey cooked much faster than if it had been put into a loaf pan. Also, the result was light, almost fluffy, and moist.

Heat olive oil in a skillet. Cook the onions until soft but not colored, about 5 minutes. About 3 minutes in, add the chili peppers and sage. Set aside to cool when the 5 minutes total is up.

In a large bowl, break up turkey into small pieces that you can easily incorporate with the other ingredients. Mix the bread crumbs with enough milk to moisten them thoroughly. Add them and the onion/sage/chili mix to the turkey. Add the egg. Add salt and pepper and garlic and onion powders. Mix thoroughly.

Roll up a 1” ball of the mixture and microwave it for 20-25 seconds or until cooked through. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

This is really fun and easy to make. You have to have a little patience to heat the milk slowly so that it doesn’t burn or scald. After that, it’s a piece of cake (well, it’s a piece of ricotta cheese). I made ricotta once before, quite a while ago – don’t remember. There seem to be two ways to do it (maybe more): either with buttermilk or vinegar. The vinegar measurement is a little arcane – I mean, 1/3 cup plus a teaspoon? Go figure.

The recipe below I found somewhere on the net. It calls for a whole gallon of milk. I reduced it to a quart and did the math on the vinegar. For 1 quart you use 1 ½ tsp white vinegar.

The amount of cheese I ended up with will be perfect for a deconstructed onion soup I plan to make tomorrow morning.

Heat the milk over moderate heat to a temperature of 185 degrees. This will take a good half hour. Of course you will need a thermometer in it to gauge the temp.

At 185 degrees, remove the pan from heat and stir in the vinegar. Stir gently for 1 minute. Cover the pot with a kitchen towel and let it sit at room temp for at least 2 hours (I went 3).

Line a colander with cheesecloth and gently transfer the curds, using a slotted spoon, into the colander. Let it drain overnight in the refrigerator. Squeeze out excess moisture and you are done. The ricotta will be creamy and fun. Use it for anything you like.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

This is very similar to a recipe I posted back in early May. Given that there was only 1 comment at that time (I didn’t have but one regular follower), I thought I’d share it again. It’s very comforting for a chilly fall evening. This is the way my mom made pot roast in the 50’s when I was a lad. It would go into the oven before we left for church on a Sunday. When we got home it was ready for midday dinner.

Get out your Dutch oven. Scatter about 1/3 of the onion soup mix in the bottom (so that it seasons the underside of the meat). Spoon on 1/3 of the mushroom soup (undiluted).Place the vegetables in the pot and lay the beef over the top of them. Put the remaining mushroom soup concentrate and onion soup mix on top of the beef. Add the beef broth.Cover and place in the oven. Go away. Come back 3 hrs. later (perhaps 3 ½ if your roast is much larger than 3 lb.). Remove the roast to a platter, cover with foil, and let it rest for 15 minutes before serving.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

I was doing an inventory of the freezer in our kitchen refrigerator and came across a hunk of mystery meat. When I thawed it, I discovered it was 10 oz. of skirt steak, whoopee! I had thought it might be some generic top round or chuck steak.

I was influenced by What Megan’s Making the other day – her recipe for carrot and parsnip soup. When I got to the Safeway I decided to go with potato and turnip. The result was a very satisfying supper. Rachel Ray would call this a “stoup”, thinner than a stew and thicker than a soup.

As for the tomato puree, I just happened to have some left. Use a bit of tomato paste or diced tomato, whatever you have.

Melange of potato, turnip, steak and bacon2 tsp olive oil1 slice thick-cut bacon, cut into ½ “ dice10 oz. any kind of steak, sliced very thin against the grain1 large red potato, not peeled, cubed to ½”1 turnip, about the same size as the potato, peeled and cubed to ½”¼ large onion, finely chopped½ cup tomato pureechicken brothgarlic powderonion powdersalt and pepper½ frozen corn

Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium. Add the bacon and cook until crisp. Add the beef and cook 2 minutes, tossing frequently. Remove bacon and steak with a slotted spoon to a paper towel to drain.

Add a bit more oil if needed. Saute the potato, turnip and onion for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the tomato (in whatever form you have). Add enough chicken stock to come up to the level of the vegetables in the pan. It’s not necessary to totally cover them. Add garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper to taste. Add the steak and bacon. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook 15 minutes. Stir in frozen corn, remove pan from heat and allow to sit for 5 minutes.

It’s ready. Garnish with anything you can think of you’d like: parsley, cilantro.

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The book - it's very special

Many folks have been reading this and seeing how much of a story it is as opposed to just a compendium of recipes. To order go to http://www.createspace.com/3695950 or to Amazon, where you search for my name, not the title.

An honor from the Denver Post

I was surprised by this entry online from Tucker Shaw, former food editor for the Denver Post:

"Denver is lousy with home-cooking blogs, but one that isn't lousy is The Obsessive Chef, where avid (OK, obsessive) home cook Stephen Crout experiments with and offers tips on recipes from a variety of sources. One recent triumph: succulent, crisp-skinned "Broasted Chicken." Visit theobsessivechef.blogspot.com for that recipe and dozens more."